As time draws closer to International Paper’s final days in Bastrop, the Louisiana Workforce Commission’s Rapid Response Team continues to add workshops to assist the former employees.
The first two workshops added are “Stress Management.”
This workshop will be presented by the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals’ Louisiana Spirit Stress Management Program.
Louisiana Spirit’s goal is to promote a healthy workforce by providing education, group and individual counseling services, and training in self care to help staff manage stress.
“We offer a variety of stress management services for workers, including stress management and defusing groups, brief individual and ‘walk around’ sessions, and presentations at safety and other meetings on such topics as grief and loss processing, resiliency building, insomnia strategies, developing assertiveness skills, individual coping techniques, working with difficult people, anger management, difficult transitions and other stress management training tailored to meet the needs of specific worksites or individuals,” Karen Hills, La. Spirit stress management team leader, said. “These services are made available at no charge through a federal grant.”
This workshop will be offered twice on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at the transition center. The first session is from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.; the second will be from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.
Another special workshop for the former International Paper employees has been made available to assist them in filing paper claims for unemployment.
Louisiana Workforce’s unemployment technical specialist, Donnie Kerr, said “we are going to be at the International Paper facilities on January 21st and 22nd. We’ll give them paperwork, explain and walk them through [the process]. We’ll have people there to take those claims.”
La. Workforce will send the employees a schedule for when to stop by for assistance.
This service will be offered to employees in alphabetical order.
On Wednesday, Jan. 21 at 9 a.m., employees with last names ending in “A” through “C” will meet. “D” through “F” will meet at 11 a.m. At the 1 p.m. session, last names ending in “G” through “L” will meet.
On Thursday, Jan. 22, employees ending in “M” through “R” will meet at 9 a.m. “S” through “Z” will have a session at 11 a.m.
Anyone that misses their scheduled session can come to one at 1 p.m. Jan. 22.
Kerr said, “people need to be there on time. We have several things to go over.”
In fact, the doors may be closed five minutes after the session is supposed to start to ensure those that arrived can go through the paper claims process thoroughly and without interruption.
Other workshops that employees can attend are “Job Search for Older Workers” from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. today, “Basic Computer Skills” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. today, “Job Search Skills and Techniques” from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 15 and “Interview to Win” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 15.
The seminars with the exception of the unemployment claims sessions are limited in space, and employees must pre-register to attend. To register, call 556.1723 or stop by the transition center at 805 East Cypress Avenue.
The International Paper transition center will be closed on Monday, January 19 in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It will reopen on Jan. 20 to begin “Stress Management” workshops.
